Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Hail Caesar Fantasy - Battle on the Fields of Kuttel - Part 1

Last week was too busy to get anything posted on Monty's Caravan. Somehow it was one of those weeks which were packed with appointments and I didn't find the time to sort the hundred pictures which I took on Good Friday. However I'm on a good way to restrain my backlog and here comes at least the first part of the report:

On Good Friday we had a special meeting with our wargaming group and gathered for a large game of Hail Caesar Fantasy. It was the first time we tried this apart from some trial games and the fewest were really familiar with the rules so we decided to use simple army lists from the core book and the official add-ons to depict orcs, goblins, dark elves and whatever.
For future games we might use some more sophisticated lists. For this I can recommend the Yahoo-group hosted by Scott Bowman from Scott's Wargaming Blog. He and the other members collected a large number of ideas and army lists for fantasy peoples. They even developed some rules for magical powers. Really good stuff. Thanks for your efforts, folks!

Background
The picturesque city of Kuttel is one of the metropolises of the fantastic land Gelbien ("Yellow Land"). Gelbien has been hard-fought for years. The human Empire and its allies are waging war against the invading hordes of wild orcs and goblins, awful undead, cold-blooded dark elves and other villainous brood. The war tossed and turned but now the final decision casts a cloud over Gelbien. A horde of beastmen, lizardmen and undead managed lay siege to Kuttel. A force of loyal and brave dwarves decided to make an excursion and face the enemy in front of their city.

The fortified city of Kuttel, target of the united villains.

Meanwhile an even larger army of orcs, wild orcs, goblins and dark elves approaches the another flank of Kuttel and prepares to cross the Mäusefluss ("Mice River"). If they are stopped they'll attack the Kuttel defenders from the rear and most likely annihilate those brave fellows.
But the Empire of Men was well informed about those troop movements by own reconnaissance and thus summoned a relief force of Imperial, bretonnian and elvish troops to stop the united villains. Those two forces met on the Fields of Kuttel nearby but were too far to gear into the siege itself. So both battles had to be fought disjunctly but both were likewise decisive Gelbien's fate...

The large board: The Fields of Kuttel.

A view of all forces present on the two boards. The empty trays helt some civilians and stronghold troops of Kutteln which were positioned already.

Initial Deployment

Bird's eye view of the Fields of Kutteln with the two forces arriving.

With my brave Bretonnians I had the honour to fight on the Field of Kuttel to refuse the hordes from getting to the city. Our allied force was led by Holger the Imperial commander-in-chief and we were supported by Heinz and his steady elves. Our troops took position on the right hand side of the board with Imperial men on the right flank (at the top), the wood elves and the high elves in the center and my two Bretonnian divisions on the left flank (at the bottom). We were facing a strong united force of wild orcs on the left flank (at the top), dark elves in the center as well as orcs and goblins on their right flank (at the bottom).

The board itself depicted the Fields of Kuttel with the Mäusefluss at the left flank (bottom of the picture, only indicated with reed bases), a large hill on our left flank and some fields and hedges in the center and on the right flank. On the very far right flank we faced the small foothills of a large forest.

First Movements
During the first turns we had some cautious approach. The horde's flank commanders missed their command rolls rather early so only the dark elves in the center were able to advance.
But we allies weren't sure whether this was by mistake or some kind of weird tactics...

The dark elves with a warband of frantic corsairs two bolt throwers on their flank.

So Holger decided to employ the same manoevre and missed the command roll for one of his divisions as well. With our right flank as firm as a standing stone Heinz and me advanced considerately:
His elves moved at mediocre speed and formed two battle lines. Afterwards my archers closed ranks with their pointed eared comrades-in-arms and the knights trotted forward to prepare a swing to the center. The men at arms following as fast as possible to secure my divisions' left flank.

The allied battleline. The bretonnian and elvish archers shoulder side by side and in the background the Imperial troops.

The bretonnian knights on the far left trotting towards the united villains.

After these initial movements on both sides tension was in the air since the fate of Gelbien was to be decided.

But before any swords were crossed or any blood was shed an event occured that is mightier than the orders of emperors, kings or generals:

Let me finish the first part of my AAR with this impression. Be sure that you'll be able to read more of sneaky goblins, brutal orcs, steady elves and brave knights soon. I'll do my very best to get part two online until friday.

Kalle did a very good job when preparing the boards. The troops were brought by various players and all looked good.For the city: I plan to present some more pictures of the battle near Kuttle in part 3 while part 2 will cover the remains of our game on the fields.

Superb stuff Monty! Well done and many thanks for the plug!Although I set the group up, its the members who have come up with the lists, they've done some great work.We would have had more but for IP and copyright concerns...

Member of the Team for historical Simulations

The "THS - Team for historical simulations" is a small, multinational group of wargamers simulating historical battles as well as fictional conflicts. The team meets every other Friday night in Erkrath-Hochdahl near Duesseldorf.I joined the team in 2012 and since then I have the pleasure to share a lot of hobby time with these great fellows.

Participant of Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge

At the beginning of the year Curt from Analogue Hobbies organizes a painting challenge for miniature painters. This year I had the great pleasure to participate.
Look here for Curt's site and standings.

About me

Actually my name is Stefan and I'm from Germany. Besides being the husband of a lovely wife and the father of two charming daughters I've been doing wargaming for over 15 years. Smallscale modelling even longer...
On this blog I want to share my workbench with you and introduce some of my projects and results.
I hope you enjoy this view whicht might be at arm's length sometimes and personal some other times.